While that remains a remarkably fast pace compared to the United States, it's slow by Chinese standards.

Though the U.S. economy is still the largest in the world, it grew at a mere 1.8% in the third quarter (fourth quarter figures haven't been released yet).

China, the world's second largest economy, has grown at an average annual rate of about 10% for the last 30 years.

Last year, taming rapidly rising prices was one of the Chinese government's top priorities. Officials tightened credit in the country's financial system, and tried to take some of the steam out of a domestic housing boom.

Now government efforts to cool a rapidly growing real estate market seem to be working. Residential property prices in 100 major Chinese cities started cooling in September.

But China's economic engine has also begun to lose momentum, as the country's exporters are being hit by weaker demand amid slowing world economic growth.